Γραικός

Forms

Γραικός (Graikós) m (feminine Γραική, neuter Γραικόν); first/second declension^[1] The Linear B form ka-ra-wi-ko may be an early record of the same name, but the reading is doubtful.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[4][5] Beekes and Frisk think the name was first given to the Dorians of Epirus by their neighbours, so that it would be Illyrian in origin; the Italic peoples then took it over and used it for all the Hellenes.^[4][5][6] Chantraine points out that the word looks Illyrian in its structure and cannot contain the Greek suffix -ικός (-ikós) of possessive adjectives.^[6][7] The same name without the ⟨κ⟩ suffix is found in Latin Graius and in Messapic graias and grahis.^[4][5][2] Frisk takes the Epirote tribal name Γρᾶες (Grâes) as its basis, itself of unknown origin, and Beekes considers this possible.^[5][4] Ernout suggested that the term reached Italy through the Etruscans.^[5][4]

Another hypothesis, reported by Wiktionary, derives it from Γραῖα (Graîa), a town on the coast of Boeotia, whose Greeks in southern Italy the Romans would have named after it.^[1]

The use of the word in Hellenistic literature is partly modelled on Latin Graecī, the Latin name for the Greeks.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In a fragment of Hesiod, Graikos is a son of Zeus and Pandora, the eponymous hero of the Greeks before they took the name Hellenes from Hellen.^[2][8][3] As the name of a people it is first found in Sophocles (in a fragment) and in Aristotle, who says that the people round Dodona, the Selloi, were once called Graikoi and are now called Hellenes.^[2][6][9]

Semantic evolution

The Parian Marble (3rd century BC) repeats that the Hellenes had earlier been called Γραικοί, and Callimachus, Lycophron and Apollodorus use the name in learned poetry and mythography.^[9][4][6] In Hellenistic Greek it often simply means “Greeks”, the name that foreigners gave to the Hellenes.^[6][2][10]

Among the Romans the word could be contemptuous: Plutarch reports that Cato the Elder spoke of “Greeklings” and that Cicero was mocked with the nickname “the Greek”.^[11][3][2] Through Latin the name passed into the modern European languages.^[7][12]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept the ethnic name, with forms influenced by Italian.^[13] In Modern Greek Γραικός (Graikós) survives as a name for a Greek.^[14][12]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – A fragment of Hesiod names Graikos as a son of Zeus and Pandora.^[2][8]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses the name in a fragment.^[2][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle says that the people round Dodona were once called Graikoi.^[9][6][2]
• 3rd century BC – The Parian Marble states that the Hellenes were earlier called Graikoi.^[4][6][9]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch reports the Roman contempt for “Greeks” in his lives of Cato and Cicero.^[11][3]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts use the ethnic name, partly under Italian influence.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Greek, usually in the plural, the Greeks; at first the name of the people round Dodona, later used by foreigners for all the Hellenes.^[9][2][10]
2. (mythology) Graikos, a son of Zeus and Pandora, or of Thessalos, from whom the Greeks took their name.^[2][3]

Adjective

1. Of persons, Greek.^[10][9]

Word family

• Γραικίτης (Graikítēs)
• γραικίζω (graikízō)

Related words

• Latin Graecus
• Latin Graius
• English Greek

Usage notes

The Alcman fragment that has Γραῖκες, glossed as “the mothers of the Hellenes”, is of doubtful meaning.^[9] Frisk explains it as a remodelling of γραῦς (graûs) “old woman” on the pattern of γυναῖκες (gunḗ).^[9][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
3. ^ a b c d e Charbonnet, André, Onomata, v4 (Greek proper names, companion to Bailly 2020)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
7. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
8. ^ a b Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ a b Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
12. ^ a b Τεγόπουλος, Γ.; Φυτράκης, Ε. (1997), Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό, Athens: Αρμονία
13. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
14. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki